The ongoing effort to develop better drugs to address the $250 billion problem of Type 2 diabetes has a new development. Merck (NYSE: MRK) is collaborating with Abide Therapeutics on three drugs based on a technology platform that selectively chooses from a group of enzymes that have broad therapeutic applications.
The collaboration, which will also develop drugs for other metabolic diseases, is valued at up to $430 million for three products, according to a company statement.
It’s the second Type 2 diabetes drug development collaboration Merck announced this week. On Monday, Merck said a subsidiary would help develop and commercialize a Pfizer drug to combat the condition.
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The enzymes at the heart of the technology are referred to as serine hydrolases. Harnessing the power of these enzymes could have broad therapeutic applications since they play an important role in the human physiological processes, such as regulating CNS signaling, digestion, metabolism, inflammation, blood clotting, and life cycle of viruses and pathogens.
Professors Ben Cravatt and Dale Boger developed the enzyme selection technology at The Scripps Research Institute.
Although drugs have been developed using serine hydrolases, a lack of specific inhibitors for the vast majority of the 200 or so serine hydrolases identified means that, to date, the biological functions of most of these enzymes remain poorly characterized, the statement said.
The collaboration is a logical move considering Abide CEO Alan Ezekowitz’s previous gig was at Merck Research Laboratories where he was a senior vice president and franchise head for bone, respiratory, immunology, endocrine, dermatology and urology from 2006 to 2011.
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In an interview with BioCentury last year, Ezekowitz said that while the group has no shortage of targets (it has a small molecule library of 1,000 compounds across five different structural classes) the trick is to validate targets and define pathways with small groups of patients.
According to the terms of the deal, Abide is eligible to receive an upfront payment, research funding, with potential milestone payments for up to $430 million for three products. Merck will have worldwide commercialization rights to any products coming out of the collaboration. Abide will be entitled to receive royalty payments on global sales from these products.
Last year Abide said it partnered with ActivX Biosciences in La Jolla, CA, which has a strong focus on activity based proteomics to help fight cancer.
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